Upper body protective garments are commonly worn by participants of contact sports for the purpose of preventing injuries to their shoulders, back, and chest. These kinds of injuries are ordinarily associated with sports such as lacrosse, hockey, and football. In these contact sports, various situations may cause upper body injuries. Examples of these situations include tackling or otherwise bumping into other players, falling to the ground, being struck by another player's equipment, or being struck by game ball itself. Of course, upper body protective garments may reduce or prevent injuries resulting from various other circumstances, including those not associated with contact sports.
Existing upper body protective garments utilize a relatively significant amount of foam padding for absorbing the energy of blows delivered to the user's upper body. Moreover, a rigid cover, typically made of plastic, usually overlays the foam padding so as to distribute the force of the blow across a larger area of the foam padding. As is known in the art, distributing the force in this manner permits the foam padding to absorb a substantial portion of the energy associated with the blow.
A drawback of using foam padding is that the repeated compression and expansion of the foam padding may over time cause the foam padding to fatigue and lose its ability to absorb energy. Another drawback is that the combined use of the foam padding and the rigid cover adds relatively significant weight to the protective garment. Since lightweight athletic garments are known for allowing players to expend more energy participating in the sport instead of carrying the weight of the gear, the added weight is an undesirable result.
Therefore, a need exists for upper body protective gear that cushions against powerful blows and is relatively lightweight and long-lasting.
Protective equipment also exists to protect other parts of the body from injury during contact athletic events. Such protective equipment includes gloves, shin guards, and hip pads. This protective equipment like the upper body protective gear described above, is typically comprised of foam padding or foam padding with a plastic cover and thus suffers from the same deficiencies discussed above.
Therefore, a need also exists for protective equipment for any part of the body that cushions against powerful blows and is relatively lightweight and long-lasting.